Fred Hutch 35th Annual Gala

Ken and Rose Dennis

On Saturday evening, Ken and I attended the 35th Annual Hutch Holiday Gala at the Sheraton Seattle.  We were guests of Citi Private Bank at Nancy & Mark Pellegrino's table and had fun being seated with old friends, Debi & Len Giannola and Rose & Frank Dennis plus some new friends as well.

When we arrived, we saw checking in at the same time, friends JJ McKay, Pamela Rolfe, Sally Behnke and Dottie Simpson.  Both Sally and Dottie, active, involved, community-minded women, are women whom I aspire to be like someday!  The hotel was decorated beautifully and other than a extremely long, tedious wait at the bar to get a drink before we were seated for dinner, the evening's service was excellent and the food delicious.

Once we sat down for dinner, we were entertained with a very funny actor and comedian, Kevin Nealon, widely known for his role on Saturday Night Live.  John Curley was the auctioneer, while Steve Raible, Denise Whitaker and Sharon Friel served as celebrity announcers.

Debi Giannola, Mark & Nancy Pellegrino, Frank Dennis

A highlight of the program was when Jackie Bezos made the plea to support raising matching funds for the $10 million gift their family gave last year to fuel immunotherapy research at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.  An extensive "Raise the Paddle" segment then occurred where at each gift level, a designated advocate and donor stood up to make the first gift at that level.  Sean Parker led the $250,000 level, Peter Horvitz led the $75,000, Carl & Sally Behnke led the $50,000 level (though later raised their donation to a total of $75,000), Karl & Carol Ege led the $25,000 level and Barbara & Bill Bryant led the $15,000 level.  Each level from $250,000 down to $500 had a designated advocate and donor.  I did my best to keep track of the donations at each level and I think the total was close to $2,700,000!

One of Ken's pet peeves at auctions is that the new normal is that every auction waits to serve the dinner entree until after the "Raise the Paddle" segment occurs.  When it took almost an hour to get the huge number of donations that were generously given last night, the entree still had not been served at 9:30 pm.  Though I know Ken was ready to leave before the entree was served, I was happy to see that he controlled his impatience and we actually stayed until just before dessert!

Since we missed the final auction items, I did not hear the total proceeds raised from the evening, but I was impressed with the bidding energy in the room so feel quite sure that the total amount raised was one that everyone involved can be proud of!